Farewell Fiesta
by FountainPenguin
Summary: Unbeknownst to Noah until it's too late, his family throws a going-away party for him and several of his fellow ex-contestants before they leave for third season. Some good-byes are more difficult to choke out than others. (Written August 2013)


She punched the door instead of really knocking on it, and it flew open instantly to reveal a sort of tall-ish, tan-skinned girl of perhaps eighteen with a wide smile and tangled brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She flung her arms around Eva immediately, causing the shorter girl to stammer out, "Uh, what?"

"Eva, right? I'm so glad you could make it!"

She wriggled awkwardly from the hug, glancing over her shoulder and out towards the street. "Um… Am I the first one here?"

"You are indeed, but it shouldn't be long before the others arrive. I'm Amanda. Come in, come in! And just to clear things up, you _aren't_ Noah's girlfriend, are you?"

"I, uh… what? No!"

Amanda nodded, still smiling, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just checking. You can never tell with that boy. Speaking of which, since you probably don't want to go on a tour of the whole house, let me find him for you." It was obvious they were siblings; Amanda held up one finger in a _One moment, please,_ sort of way, same as him, and called, "Hey Noah, your girlfriend is here!" Then she cocked her head, listening for several seconds. "No shout of denial, which means he's upstairs playing Kosmic Kaos with his headphones on. Come on, you can come say 'Hi' to him before the party."

"I, um… Okay."

Amanda sped off across the kitchen, sweeping a small child off the table in the process and setting him on the floor without even pausing. Eva followed more slowly, scratching the back of her head. She had been expecting each of Noah's siblings to be as calm and reserved as he was, but evidently that was not the case. Indeed, Amanda scrambled up the stairs on all fours like an oversized puppy. The thought of Noah doing that only made her snort.

Amanda was waiting for her when Eva reached the top of the stairs. "He's in here," she said, nodding to an open bedroom. "Watch this: It'll be hilarious."

"All right…?"

It was one big room, actually, with four beds crammed into it, two on each of the opposite walls. Eva picked Noah's out without even trying. His sheets were tangled, waterfalling over one side, and six different books were scattered across it. Above the bed was a world map labeled 'Season Three'. A single thumbtack was stuck through the center of Canada. Beside the map, to Eva's surprise, was a photo that Geoff had taken of them - of she and Noah and Izzy - back at Playa Des Losers, the three of them with fireflies in their hands.

Then there was Noah himself on the far side of the room, being so quiet that she hadn't even noticed him until he suddenly shouted, "Load faster, dang it!" and slammed his hands down on his computer keyboard. Eva jumped guiltily and looked over just in time to see Amanda whip the headphones from his ears.

"Outta the chair, lazybutt. It's my turn to play."

He scrambled with her as she tried pushing him away, not even looking at her, tapping furiously on the keyboard. "Mandy, I'm in the middle of the red dragon fight! Wait your turn!"

"Come on, you haven't left this room all day."

"I did too. Remember breakfast?"

"Either way, you've been in here way too long. Share. Share!"

"Fight you for it!" he shouted, and in one swift movement he had snatched a pillow from the desk and tackled her. The two of them tussled briefly across the floor, and finally Noah slammed the pillow down on her head and buried his face in it. They lay there for a moment, chuckling together, and that was when he looked up and saw Eva standing in the doorway. He froze, eyes ready to pop.

"Um… You saw nothing."

Eva, now recovered from her shock, folded her arms. "You little liar. You told me you couldn't fight."

Noah scrambled backwards, flattening his back against the nearest wall. "What are _you_ doing here? In-" He cast his eyes about randomly before finally stammering out, "-my room?"

"Um… You invited me to a last get-together party before you and the others set off on Season 3?"

"What? What are you talking about? No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

Amanda raised her hand from where she still lay on the floor. "It was Mom's idea. She and Nikki and Gracie set it up, and Danny and I called Izzy to get the numbers of your friends from the show so they could all come to the party."

Noah seemed genuinely horrified to hear this. "You did _what_? There's a _party_?" He grabbed his sister's shirt and stared down at her with a look of pure panic on his face. "Who did you invite? Who did you invite?"

Amanda waved a dismissive hand. "To be fair we invited them all, but we really have no idea who's coming."

Noah stumbled back, a hand clapped over his mouth. He looked helplessly at Eva, then back at his sister. "This is a joke, right? Eva was passing through the neighborhood and just stopped in to say 'Hi'. That's it."

"'Fraid not, shortstuff." Amanda pushed herself back up to her feet, smiling. "You should change into that red sweater you wore on the show or none of your friends will recognize you."

Noah threw himself backwards onto the nearest bed with a groan. "How did I not know about this?"

"Because you're an idiot," Amanda told him, and took his cheeks in her hands. "Yes you are, yes you are, but we love you anyway, don't we? We all love our little Noah, yes we do."

"I hate you," he moaned, slapping her arms away, and she laughed and kissed his forehead.

"All right, all right, we'll leave you in peace. For now. Your friends should all be arriving over the next ten or so minutes, so once you're dressed you should come down to see them."

"I hate you," he whined a second time, and chucked a pillow her way, but Amanda was already out of range.

"That reminds me," she said to Eva, wagging a finger. "You can punch, poke, push, pull, prod, throw, carry, drag, tickle, or tease my brother all you want, but if you kiss him, I lose a forty-dollar bet with our niece, okay?"

"Um… right. That won't be a problem."

Amanda beamed happily at that. "Well, fun is fun, but we should really leave Noah alone for awhile. Come on, you can hang out with the family until the rest of your friends arrive."

Eva gave a last awkward wave to Noah before following his sister down the stairs. "You seriously didn't tell him we were coming?"

"Nah. But did you see the look on his face? Priceless. Hey," Amanda scolded, pulling a dark-haired girl of maybe seven away from the table, "I thought we agreed you wouldn't bring any peanut butter into the house. You know half of us are allergic to it."

"Spoil-sport," the girl grumbled, sticking out her tongue. Amanda stuck her tongue out back and ruffled her hair with one hand.

"Eva, this is Sheila."

"Sheila?" Eva repeated, instantly on guard. She had heard plenty of horror stories involving Noah's oldest niece.

Sheila looked her up and down, unimpressed. "So what exactly makes you think you can date my uncle?"

"I _don't_ want to date your uncle, actually."

"Huh. You're not even as hot as you looked on TV."

Eva flinched instinctively at that.

"Sheila." Amanda smacked her on the back of the head. "Be nice. One put-down means you owe Eva two put-ups, remember?"

Sheila folded her arms. "You have pretty hair and I thought you looked epic during your audition tape when you got hit with that basketball. We good now?"

Amanda rolled her eyes and threw Eva an apologetic look. Then, to Sheila, "Why don't you run along and find your father?"

"Sure, whatever." Sheila started off down the hall, then ran back to them. "Oh yeah, Noah likes foot massages, but only when he's sleeping, and you'll know that you're doing them right when he starts making weird purring noises."

"Um, right. Thanks. I will… definitely not be forgetting that any time soon."

"Sheila." Amanda pointed again down the hall, and Sheila headed down it a second time, then turned back about halfway.

"Just don't kiss his ears: He's real sensitive about that ever since the Cody incident from Season 1. And he totally goes ga-ga for candy corn- not sure why, but he does. And he gets uber hyper if you stab him with one of his EpiPens. And also- Hey, Dad, leggo!" As Sheila was dragged away by a man easily double Noah's age, she called back, "I win forty bucks if you kiss him, and I'll split it with you fifty-fifty!"

"Just ignore her," Amanda said, "She's harmless, really- she's just playing with you. Her mother ran off with another guy a few years ago, so she's tried devoting herself to building 'the perfect relationship' to make sure no one ever does the same to anyone else in this family, Uncle Noah included." She took a step back then and looked Eva over. "Wow, she turned your face _red_. Want some water?" Without waiting for an answer, Amanda bounded off across the kitchen and flung open the fridge. "We also have eggnog that we've kept for like ever. Noah doesn't it like it, but I heard that you do. Here, you can have it. On the house."

"He told you that?" Eva asked, catching the bottle.

"Nah, we found that out from Izzy- real pity she said she can't come, but when the RCMP are hot on your trail, what can you do? It's better for the rest of us this way. And that reminds me: We made these specifically for you." Amanda pushed a tray of lemon poppy-seed muffins across the center counter. "Eat as many as you want; we have, like, eighty of 'em."

"Wow, uh… thanks. Really."

Noah came thumping down the stairs, struggling into his sweater. He took one glance at Eva's face and froze. "Shoot. You talked to Sheila, didn't you?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"Don't listen to anything she says- She's completely nuts and she makes up half the stuff that comes out of her mouth."

The doorbell rang, and Eva checked over to see someone, presumably another of Noah's sisters, open the door.

"Hi Noah, hi Eva!" Katie called, waving at them. Sadie pointed at Noah and clicked her teeth; he made a strangled noise and fled back upstairs.

"I'll get him!" Amanda offered cheerfully, and chased after him. Eva glanced up to see her physically tackle her brother, but then her attention was distracted by Katie and Sadie hugging her from either side.

"Oh my gosh, Eva, I'm so glad we get to see you again! It's been ages!"

"Totally! The last time we had a sleep-over was, like, two and a half weeks ago!"

"Oh my gosh, really? Sadie, we _must_ invite her over again."

"Yay," Eva moaned, smiling tightly at them. "Would you two please let go of me now?"

They did, but only because Amanda had come back down the stairs with Noah in tow and they wanted to hug him instead. When they finally ran through the kitchen and out the back door to adjust the party decorations, Noah leaned his head back against his sister's folded arms and looked up at her.

"You really had to invite _them_?"

She kissed his forehead and he pushed her away, wandering instead over to the counter. He took a bite of a poppy-seed muffin, met Eva's eyes, then wiped crumbs from his mouth with the back of his hand and shifted his attention away.

"Is my face still red?"

He nodded without looking at her.

"Fruitcake," she said, leaning on the counter, "you and I both know that we don't like each other in _that_ sort of way. We've talked about this. At least," she added, studying him, "I'm fairly certain we agreed that's the case."

"Definitely."

"Good."

"Good."

They looked at each other for several more seconds before they both simultaneously buried their faces in their arms and started chuckling.

"Seriously," Eva said at last, raising her head, "I'd probably kill you first."

"You would not, or you'd have no one to fix your computer. Also, my siblings would hate you forever. Even Nikki, and she's your number one fan."

"Really?" Eva asked, honestly touched. "Um, wow. That's… that's really cool." She blinked a few times, then said, "I… wow. I never would've guessed. I mean, people like Izzy and Mohawk and Tristan, yes, but _me_?" Then she narrowed her eyes. "Wait a minute. I've never even met your sister. Why is she a bigger fan of me than you are?"

Noah didn't bat an eye. "Because she doesn't know first-hand how scary you can be."

His comment lit her inner fire for half a second, but then it was gone. "Ouch," she said simply, and took another swig of eggnog.

The doorbell rang again, making them both jump, and a moment later they were joined by a dazed Cody.

"Noah," he said, his blue eyes finally coming in focus, "Wow, your sisters are _hot_."

"Eyes off, loverboy," he retorted, flicking crumbs Cody's way. "Only I am allowed to comment on my sisters' looks."

Cody stuck his tongue out at him, then whipped around. "Oh snap- I think I left Zeke in the car." He bolted off and came back after a few minutes with a sleepy Ezekiel, as well as Trent, Tyler, and Beth, who had apparently just pulled up. Eva received two timid waves and a slightly more genuine one from Trent, who was just that decent of a guy. Ezekiel offered her a tired smile.

"Yo, yo, yo," he said, making a peace sign, and it took all her strength not to burst into snorting laughter at the serious expression on his face.

"Here, Homeschool," she said instead, lips twitching. "Have a muffin."

He caught it when she tossed it to him, gave her a second, cautious smile, then trailed after the others as they headed out the back door. Noah looked like he was about to follow when Sheila's voice trickled down from above: "Hey, Noah! Can you come up here for a second?"

Noah rolled his eyes at Eva, but set down his muffin and went off to help his niece. She heard him bound up the steps. As she was reaching for the eggnog again, she heard a scream followed by several rapid thumps. When Eva spun around, she found her friend tumbling down the last of the stairs to land in a heap, moaning softly.

"Oops," Sheila said in what one could only assume was her _What do mean me? I'm all the way over here_ voice. She stepped down after her uncle, and then she looked pointedly in Eva's direction. "He seems hurt. Guess you're going to have to carry him."

Yeesh. What was with this girl? Eva was half-tempted to do what she said just to shut her up.

"Get up, Fruitcake," she said, walking over and pulling him to his feet. "I am _not_ going to carry you around your own house. _Especially_ not bridal style," she added, and it was her turn to look pointedly at Sheila.

"One kiss? Pretty please? I promise I'll stop bothering you if you'll just make out for, like, three seconds. See? I'm making cuts. It doesn't even have to be a real kiss. Come on, I need my twenty bucks. Be a pal?"

"Ha ha," she muttered, "very funny. Come on, Fruitcake. Why don't you introduce me to the rest of your family now."

"Good plan."

"Oh, come on," Sheila wailed as Eva led Noah out into the backyard, "it's forty dollars!"

"That's my sister, Grace," he said, pointing to a small girl who was tying a balloon around the wrist of one of Noah's nephews. "She's blind, but a lot of people don't always guess it straight off by the way she acts, though if you study her closely enough you can see it in her pale eyes. But she'll know that you're staring. Then over there," he added, swinging his arm towards an older girl who was tossing Tyler a Frisbee, "is my sister, Nicole, with the short silvery-blonde hair like my dad's."

"The one who's supposedly my biggest fan?"

"That'd be her. She's into sports, for whatever nonsensical, masochistic reason. You'd almost certainly get along with her real well. She has expressed interest in adopting you should your dad ever die before you're eighteen. Over there is Sheila's dad, my brother Daniel. And on his other side is my half-brother, Kiran."

"Your half-brother?" Eva asked without thinking, and then winced when Noah glanced at her. "Sorry. You don't have to tell me the story if you don't want to."

"There's not much to tell," he said, shrugging as they walked, but since he wasn't looking at her Eva suspected that she might have hit a sore spot. "My mom married a nutjob, then she met my dad after she immigrated here from India." He brought his hands together to make a heart. "They had the rest of us and, for the cherry on top, I was their happily ever after. The end."

"Who's that with the long hair talking to Cody?" she asked, quickly changing the subject, and Noah followed her pointing finger to a man rather largish by the standards of his family. Whatever story he was telling, it involved wild gestures of his arms, much grinning, and a great deal of reaching out to poke Cody in the shoulder.

"That would be my brother Caspian," Noah told her, dripping with reluctance. "And if you want my two cents, he should have told the tattoo artist to give his shoulder a black sheep instead of a zebra."

"He looks… cool."

"He looks annoying," he corrected. "Don't encourage him. And whatever you do, for my sake if you value my friendship, _please_ do not bring up any mention of the…" He squirmed, then finally muttered, "the kissing incident from the Awake-A-Thon." They both watched Caspian for a minute, and then Noah suddenly grabbed Eva's arm and said, "Too late- let's keep moving before he realizes I'm here. Shoo," he said as one of his little nephews suddenly grabbed his hand. "Can't you see I'm trying to walk here?"

"Pretty," the boy said, pointing at Eva. "Pretty _mahila."_

Pretty?

"Very pretty," Noah agreed, pushing him away. "Now go play catch with your mommy."

"Pretty _mahila_ ," he said again, staying stubbornly put.

"Did Sheila put you up to this?"

The boy looked at Eva a moment longer, then stuck his thumb in his mouth. " _Kama_?"

"No. Go away, Lucas."

A grin split the young boy's face, and he spun in a circle calling out, " _Dharma, artha, kama! Dharma, artha, kama!_ "

"What's he saying?" Eva asked, genuinely curious, though Noah's miffed expression was giving her a hint.

"If you really want to know," he said over his shoulder as they walked, "he's saying that I ought to love and respect you forever and also- _Aaaaggh!_ "

To Eva's complete shock, Noah's ankle caught around a rope in the grass, and he flew backwards and up into the branches of the high tree they had been walking under. For a few seconds he spun in a daze, and then he cried, "Lucas, you did that on purpose! How many slices of cake did Sheila promise you?"

The young boy cackled, blew Eva a kiss, and then ran off in search of someone else to bother.

"Are you okay up there, Fruitcake?"

"Just peachy," was his grit-teeth reply. He twisted, swiping his hands at the rope, but he couldn't seem to catch a proper hold on it from his position. "Wouldn't be the first time this has happened, sad as it is to admit."

Okay, she was impressed. Evidence hinted that Sheila might be the likely cause of the rope's origin, and if there was one positive thing that could be said about that girl, it was that she seemed to be excellent at setting up traps. Noah didn't look like he would be going anywhere anytime soon.

"I'm coming," Eva called up to him, and sprang upwards, catching a branch with her hands, kicking now as she tried to pull herself up. It was a little easier after that, and it wasn't long before she was close enough that she could have reached out and touched his fingers.

There was another cackle. Eva glanced down to see Sheila standing there, looking extremely pleased with herself, though it took Eva several seconds to realize that they had walked right into her _real_ trap.

" _Noah and Eva sittin' in a tree,"_ she sang, clapping her hands in time with her words.

"Shut up, kid," Eva grunted, scrambling up to the next branch, though she knew there was only one way Sheila would quiet down.

"Sheila, this isn't funny," Noah called down to her, still thrashing and twisting as he tried to reach the rope. "This is seriously dangerous!"

"You're flushing," she teased.

"Possibly because that's what happens when the blood rushes to your head."

She ignored them, instead raising her voice. _"Noah and Eva sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"_

"Shut up," Eva shouted, more loudly this time, "or I'll leave your uncle here until he rots!"

Noah had lost interest in his ankles and merely stared down at his niece with a scowl, arms folded.

Again, more forcefully: _"Noah and Eva sittin' in a tree! Please just make out already!"_

"Aw, forget this!" Eva grabbed Noah's upside-down face in her hands and slammed it against her own. She felt him struggle against the awkward half-kiss, his fingers snatching at her wrists for a hold, and below them Sheila burst into laughter.

"Oh my gosh, that is _priceless!_ "

Eva shoved him away. He clapped his hands over his mouth and stared at her in genuine horror, which made her feel rather guilty (and also a couple of shreds offended), but that all evaporated when she looked down and realized who had been watching. They looked nothing alike except in the way he stood with his arms folded, eyebrows raised, but no one had to tell her that this was Noah's father. On his other side stood a shocked Beth, an amused Katie and Sadie, and Trent who was, well, Trent.

"Um," Eva said awkwardly, fingers shredding bark chips as she dug them into the branch, "that was definitely _not_ what it looked like."

Dang it. Dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it. She was never going to live this down. At least there was no Tyler here. He had claimed from his first full day at Playa Des Losers that he sensed "a spark" between herself and Noah, and he had never stopped pressing her about it when they heaved weights together in the gym.

"It was her!" Noah shouted, gesturing frantically in her direction. "She did it! She took advantage of me! I had no part in that whatsoever!"

"Liar," she mumbled at him.

"Noah," his father said, completely straight-faced, "how many times have I told you not to kiss girls while you're dangling upside-down by your ankles five meters off the ground?"

"Six times," he moaned, wiping at his mouth.

Six.

Eva gave a snicker before she could stop herself, and Noah stared at her, his look of horror melting to irritation. He reached out towards her, fingers twitching, and when he had a good grip on a branch he tried flipping himself over right-side-up.

"That was absolutely disgusting. No one must _ever_ know you did that."

"Agreed," she said, and they locked eyes for several seconds before she glanced away and mumbled, "Uh, sorry, Fruitcake…"

Sheila exchanged a fist-bump with Trent without looking at him. "He so wants her."

"Sheila," Noah wailed as Eva finally started to free his ankle from the rope, "Shut! Up!"

"All right, all right. I did promise that I'd leave you alone, after all. Which reminds me." She put a hand to her forehead in a salute, looking up at Eva. "I owe you twenty bucks."

"Scram, shortstuff," she snapped back, pulling Noah onto the branch beside her. Then, hardly waiting to see if he was balanced, she swung back down through the tree, sending Beth, Katie, Sadie, and Trent scattering. She paused before Noah's father, mumbled an awkward apology, and then fled across the lawn. She made the mistake of glancing back over her shoulder and ended up slamming straight into Duncan.

"Whoa there, Iron Woman," he said, pushing her face away from his chest. "I'm flattered, but I don't think you and I were meant to be."

She threw him a dirty look, backing away. "Shut up, Mohawk."

"Wow, your face is pink." Duncan tilted his head, and then his eyes lit up. "Oh, don't tell me-"

She grabbed the collar of his shirt, yanking him a bit closer to her own eye level. She didn't say anything. She didn't need to. Still smiling, Duncan mimed closing his lips like a zipper, and she slowly released him, not blinking.

"I won't kill you," she told him, "because I happen to like you, but I _will_ hurt you, got it?"

He drew an 'X' across his heart, and then he said, "Fruitcake?"

"Shut up," she hissed, taking a step away, and his gaze drifted over her shoulder.

"Man, does he ever look mad. Think it's because you kissed him or because you stopped?"

"Shut _up_!" She charged him out of pure instinct, and he laced his fingers together and lowered them to the ground. Before she realized what he was doing, he'd caught her foot and flung her over his shoulder, into the air, and she went rolling across the grass when she landed. She lay there, dazed, staring up at the sky while he laughed at her.

"You're almost cute when you're trying to kill me."

"Mmph," she said, leaning her head back in the grass to stare at him. "I still like your style, Mohawk. That was awesome."

Duncan nodded, then gestured across the yard with his head. "Do I have your permission to go bother Noah now, or is he off-limits?"

Giving in to his teasing, Eva closed her eyes and sighed through her teeth. "Go ahead. Knock yourself out."

She sort of sensed him smirk and send her a thumbs up, and then he was off, sarcastically shouting, "Good to see you again, little buddy! Long time and no torment, huh?"

Eva rolled over and sat up, rubbing her head. A brief glance showed Noah sitting at the picnic table alongside his sisters, slumped completely over with his arms outstretched across it. Duncan was ruffling his hair, then gave him a complimentary bop on the head and turned away to sample the pudding.

Hold on. Was that actually a-? Had he _told_?

Eva approached the table with caution, skirting the far edge so as to put as much distance as possible between Noah and herself. He glared at her, not moving otherwise, but she pretended not to notice.

"Can I…?" She gestured at the cake, and Ezekiel and Beth exchanged brief smiles and slid it over to her.

"Hmm," was all she said after examining it. "A fruitcake. Funny. Does anyone actually like these things?" That was, after all, exactly how Noah had ended up with his nickname back on the island, and one of her more clever ones if she did say so herself. No one liked fruitcake, no one liked Noah. Easy.

"I do," came several voices, and Eva pushed the cake back across the table. Trent checked with one of Noah's older siblings for permission, then sliced into the cake and served it to those who wanted some.

"No thanks," Noah said, still with his arms across the table. "I'm no cannibal."

Eva gave a snort as she sat down across from him. "Next week I'm heading back for another round at Casa Dos Losers without your sarcastic comments or Izzy's nuttiness to keep me company. Don't be surprised if the place is trashed by the time you get booted."

He stared at her for a moment, then said, "Not sure I follow."

"If the place is trashed? Because I get angry that my two best friends are flying around the world without me? While I'm stuck with Pigtails and Creampuff and Cowboy and everyone else?"

They were peering at her strangely now: Beth and Trent and Tyler and Ezekiel and several of Noah's family.

"Aw, forget this," Eva muttered, picking out a muffin. "Don't know why I even bother."

Noah shook his head. "I'll miss you too, Iron Woman. Don't punch too many cameras while I'm gone."

She gripped the edge of the table at the memory, then gave a short nod. "Right. Don't get too many lattes spit in your face, Fruitcake."

It was the slightest of flinches, and then he straightened. "Don't eat too many muffins."

"Don't snack on too much candy corn."

"Don't sing."

Eva twitched, then picked up her slice of cake. This sent Ezekiel, Trent, Tyler, and Beth all ducking for cover beneath the table, but Noah wasn't scared of her. He was standing, hands flat on the table, watching her with his eyebrows raised.

"Well, maybe I will sing," she said defensively.

"Yeah, and maybe I'll finally hug Bridgette."

"Sure, and maybe I'll get tackled by a crocodile."

"And maybe Heather will finally get what she deserves."

They were leaning towards each other across the table, locked in a staredown. "And maybe I'll get back in the dumb competition. I've done it before."

"And we all know how well that went."

"Says the guy who wouldn't play freaking dodgeball."

"Says the girl who's going to participate less on the show than even Homeschool."

Ezekiel made a strangled noise beneath the table. "Please doon't drag me into this, homes."

Eva flexed her fingers against her plate, trying to come up with a retort, trying to remind herself that tackling Noah would not end well, especially not in front of all his family. Especially not in front of Duncan. Especially not in front of Sheila, who was grinning wildly, and Tyler, who could have been drooling, and Eva quickly pulled away when she realized that Noah's lips were only centimeters apart from hers.

"Whatever. Since it's all _your_ fault I'm not competing this season, you'd better win, got it?"

It was a promise she knew he couldn't keep, but he gave her his cocky smile and a thumbs up like he thought that was actually a real possibility in his lifetime.


End file.
